Someone Like You
by TheSoulOfAStrawberry
Summary: ADELE songfic- When all is said and done, a century is a long time to leave so many things unsaid. And perhaps it's harder, too; considering that while Asuna is still 14, Negi is 109, having seen the rise and fall of life itself. AsuNegi, nostalgia, sadness and fluff...


**Hello! Me again- you may know me from fics such as "You Plus Me Makes Three" and "Love Hurts". I'm back, and before we go any furthur, I'd like to start by saying that this fic is based around the current manga, although you only need to have read as far as chapter 343- it's quite vital, because, for those of you who have read that far will know there are some major events, and this is based on that.**

**OK, so know we're up to speed. Remember- Asuna, as a princess of Ostia or somewhere, has to sleep for a hundred years in order to restore the magical world from collapse. Negi, also, thanks to Magia Erebrea, can no longer grow older- or at least, no more than potentially four years older, as he is now immortal like Evangeline. Pretty cool, huh? Well, I've never been a fan of AU, but you may say this is that. We are fast-forwarding a hundred years into the future, and taking a look at what Negi's and Asuna's lives could be like when Asuna wakes up after a hundred years to the reality that she's slept through generations, and the lives of everyone she knew when she was 14, as she is currently in the manga. Still keeping up? And as for Negi- I can't imagine that seeing Asuna again after all that time isn't going to stir some feelings. Say no more- this is a oneshot, as a little break, and, as mentioned in the description, is a songfic of ADELE's "Someone Like You": perhaps the biggest song of 2011 worldwide, the chances are, if you've heard this song, you've heard it more than once. You only need to Google it to hear of it's raging success; and, personally, I LOVE it!**

**Thank you very much for reading this, and if you could leave even an anonymous review, I'd be very very greatful!**

Of all the places to meet, perhaps it was the most modest. To Asuna, it was a huge surprise that it still stood, almost exactly the same as it was back then: the stone balcony jutting out over the edge of Ostia itself, dusted with a fine layer of golden sand. The before perfectly cut stones were now worn, and, as she began to ascend the steps toward the arena part, she could clearly see the scars and wounds in the hard rock, from fights in the years gone by.

She herself had fonder memories of the place. Maybe that was why Negi had chosen it. It felt like only yesterday that she'd walked up those same steps, gawking at the beauty of the floating city after a morning of looking around the End Of War Commemoration Featival, with all the brilliant creatures and exotic things. It had been sunny, then, too, just like it was now. Maybe it had been a hallucination, seeing her younger self looking up at Nagi Springfield like that. That's what she'd thought it was at the time- but, now, just like everything else, it was a mere memory, entangled in the hands of time until it turned, just like the stones; to dust, slipping gently through her fingers and off into the clouds.

She remembered running. As fast as she could, towards that man, and the younger version of herself: not knowing what to expect, or what she'd find, other than disappointment. Yet that was the great thing about that occurence that made it stick in her head for so much time. There was no disappointment.

Instead, it lead her right back to the one person it always did.

She hadn't seen him for a matter of weeks: the longest, most gruelling, emotionally draining weeks of her life, where bitter feelings and worries ate at her like bloodthirsty maggots, eager for the flesh of a weak teenager. And it had been so unexpected- grinding to a halt and blinking back tears as her vision vanished, only to see a familiar figure standing in the centre of the stone, outlined by the sunshine.

Negi.

He'd turned around ever so slightly, one side of his face remaining uncharactistically shadowed, and observed the girl out of the corner of his eye. Realisation dawned on the two of them, and as her heart leapt, he whispered her name questioningly, as if not daring to believe it. But, the longer she stood there, the more it began to hurt, desperately willing herself not to rush forward in case it was yet another delusion. So much so, that when he turned around fully and the recognition dawned on his features, and she rushed into his arms, she couldn't contain her happiness. It came flooding out of her eyes, as she babbled away at him, crying his name again and again. They held each other, Asuna clasping as tight as she could, amazed at how real he was, how he'd changed and how much she felt at that single moment in time, resulting to simply not letting go of him in the fear that she would loose him again.

Now, all that was just a memory. She approached the top of the steps, and, even though the sky looked exactly the same, neither Nagi nor Negi were waiting for her, and she took a seat quietly on the wall.

That was how everything felt, now. Everything was only yesterday; so close to her, just before her sleep- whereas, in reality, a century had passed since any of that had happened. It was a surprise that the very arena itself wasn't in ruins. It still existed. So did she. But nothing else did. She'd missed everything- hundreds of thousands of days, of news, of times with the people she knew, events, feelings, laughter, smiles. All she had was the memories that felt like they had only just occurred: and, for the moment, she held them close to her heart, so she could hold them as she stepped into the unknown.

Actually, that wasn't the only thing she'd been left with. Negi has made a promise to her- reminded her of this place and told her that, when she awoke, it would be alone in a chamber, and that she should talk to no-one, and come straight here. Of course, she'd done exactly that.

What else was she supposed to do?

Everything was different now. The sky itself, gleaming blue and sparkling with huge blossoming clouds, looked almost alien. She'd not seen it for that long... Though it barely felt like that.

It was a lot to take in. Almost too much, for a girl who no longer knew who she was, how old she was, how many people knew her name, and many other things. It made her chuckle, a little, as she remembered after class lessons with the other baka rangers, and wondered what her school results would be like now, after a hundred years of neglecting just about every thought process going.

She didn't even know where to start.

What was she now?

At that moment, she wanted to let her thoughts slide for a while, and so she leant back, golden hair whipping over the edge of the wall and tickling about her back as it swayed gently back and forth, every now and again jolted by the most delicate breath of wind. It'd been so long, without so many things, and, right now, she regretted a few of them- one being the ecstatic feeling of the elements at her cheeks, bracing as they were out there, it felt uplifting- almost as if her entire being was a miracle. The wind! It was so simple, and she'd missed it so much.

Surely, she of all people knew good things couldn't last forever. Her thoughts, encore, turned to that one boy.

Well, Negi could hardly be a boy now, could he, she thought sadly, inwardly cursing herself. Only on the outside, like Evangeline. Knowing him, he'd probably got married, had kids, saved the world a few times, before the time came when he... realised that he couldn't live a normal life.

What must it have been like, all this time? Having to watch a girl grow old and frail without him, and his kids to grow taller and more mature than him, as he remains, frozen in time, cursed, as he watches the ones he loves slowly pass away around him.

Her classmates. She wondered if they were all gone now.

Evangeline? Maybe her too.

Chachamaru must hardly be the same robot- with all the modifications, she'd probably been shut down.

She daren't think of Setsuna or Konoka, Chisame, Ayaka, Makie, Ku... She wasn't even trying, and it brought tears to her eyes. What about Sayo? Even she must've moved on?

Time slipped by, never letting her hold on, and a she watched the sun move behind a relatively dark cloud, her heart dropped as a thought occurred to her.

What if Negi was dead?

"Asuna-san?"

She couldn't have imagined that.

No way.

That was...

She whipped her head around, blood pumping through her body, and she blinked twice at the simultaneously familiar and almost unrecognisable boy.

Although he wasn't wearing the same tedious green suit as he had been in Asuna's imagination, he wasn't wearing a space-suit either. In fact, he looked normal in that aspect, a crisp white t-shirt hidden underneath a simple jacket, and something Asuna had never seen Negi in before (jeans). Other than that, he'd grown a little bit- Asuna estimated his "age" to be about thirteen. His hair, as messy as ever, was exactly the same, after all those years, and his figure was now reletively well-built.

Perhaps, the most enticing feature of this stranger was his eyes. She met them cautiously, no longer confident with who she was looking at, and she felt something explode inside her. They were the exact same oaken hazel as before- so, amazingly distinguishable; but she could read so many emotions in there that she's never seen him show before.

And he was crying.

"Negi," she breathed, barely daring to move. He stood stock still, too, no longer able to function as she saw him beginning to shake with the raw emotion that powered through his veins. The sun beat down on the rock, and it took Asuna a few seconds before she could break the gaze betwwen them and let herself free; running straight into his arms, after one hundred years apart.

"Negi, I missed you!" she cried, pulling his figure into an embrace. She sobbed into his shoulder, moaning words of regret, and, although he felt so distant and almost like a different person, the ginger was greatful for the fact that Negi held her tight, gripping so tight onto her shoulders that his knuckles turned as white as sea foam, as it disappates into the briny ocean of teardrops.

"Asuna-san...!" he said again, this time sounding both choked by his emotions, and muffled by the soft fabric covering Asuna's petite frame. Asuna understood. She understood how he must've not been able to believe it, because, although it was only a little while for her, he had waited so, very, very long for this moment; this moment, where, whether he liked to admit it or not, was bittersweet, bringing back thoughts and memories from the times she had missed, the events he thought he'd forgotten and memories of his friends who had since gone from the world.

Though she didn't know it, Asuna was the only friend he had left from back then.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered, "I'm so, so sorry... I..."

"What?" Asuna exclaimed, pushing his body away from hers. He resisted a bit, not eager to let her go so quickly, and Asuna found her face very close to his, engulfed by the regret in those eyes of his. She blushed as their noses blushed, and she expected Negi to go red, but he didn't- in fact, he didn't seem the slightest bit bothered that they were so close. He'd changed.

That's when Asuna realised. Inside, Negi was 109 years old.

And she was still 14.

"Don't be sorry," she whispered, brazenly reaching up and wiping away the tears from his pale cheek. He, however, didn't let her, clenching his eyes shut and turning away, making her heart skip a beat as she realsied that, while she wanted to continue the same relationship they'd had before, this just wasn't possible for Negi.

"I... betrayed you, Asuna-san."

The guilt had taken his toll over the years, and he was never going to tell anyone about all the times that he'd wished he could end it all: if only it weren't for the thought of betraying her again when she woke up, at that moment, and he left her waiting without an apology or answers.

"You didn't, I never thought you did. You can't always be the one who keeps everything standing, right?" she encouraged, and, even though sadness tore at her heart, she gave him a cheeky wink.

It must have worked, because he returned her gesture with a little smile.

Now she tried again, wiping his tears, and this time, he let her, if not reluctantly, looking into the distance and pretending he wasn't blushing.

"Please believe me, Negi."

He didn't want to tell her what had been torturing him while she was gone.

So he stayed silent, deciding that words left unsaid back then shouldn't be brought up now.

The corner of Asuna's mouth quirked up, her emerald green and aqua blue eyes glinting wretchedly, and, as her head cleared of all the hurt, she took his hand in hers, and decided to start at the beginning.

"How's your life been?"

"Long," he said awkwardly but honestly. He'd been waiting for a long time, that was sure. Figuring it had been so long, he assumed he would be able to think of the right words to say to Asuna; to make her understand everything, but all he had become was mute. Opening up his heart to her may seem like a good idea, but he kept telling himself that, while everything had gone on for him, it was only yesterday that Asuna had been living the way he had been a lifetime ago.

"C'mon," she egged childishly, "Did you... erm... Get married?"

"No."

That shocked her, but he smiled, genuinely content this time.

"There's many reasons why not, Asuna-san."

_**I heard that you're settled down**,_

"Not married...? Hmm..."

_**That you found a girl, and you're married now**._

"You fell in love?"

"You could say so." He avoided her gaze on this one.

"Family?"

"None," he whispered, "But don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy."

"How?" she asked, though she put a hand over her mouth when she considered how rude it sounded. However, it seemed Negi still knew her well enough, not at all offended by the abrupt question, that he instead began to trace patterns into her palm with the tip of his finger as he explained, to a degree, why a boy with so many girls after him was happy with no wife and no children.

"It's a nice story," he started, "For a while. I quit teaching when 6A graduated," it sounded strange when he called the class that, "And I took some of Ala Alba back here to continue the development project with Fate... Um... Setsuna and Konoka got married... And... umm..." he went candy apple red, and Asuna knew it was good, "I may have been a donor father for their children." So, Asuna thought, the whole family thing was a bit of a lie, then?

He seemed to know what she was thinking, then. "We agreed that Haru and Alice would never be told about me."

"Haru and Alice?" she asked, nostalgic, as she imagined Konoka as a doting mother of, in her imagination, two beautiful auburn-haired daughters.

At this, Negi stood up, and extracted a few photographs from his back pocket, handing them all to her.

"Haru on the left, Alice is wearing the cat ears," he said, and Asuna gawped at the photo, of two stunning women clutching their middle-aged mothers- their hair an exact cross between Negi's and Konoka's, waist length, dancing beautifully about their shoulders: and, amazingly, the other two Asuna recognised as Setsuna and Konoka in their forties.

It hurt to think, though Negi didn't mention it, that they'd have all gone now.

**_I heard that your dreams came true..._**

"During the 25 years I spent on reforming Mundus Magicus," he continued, "Nodoka moved in with me." he indicated for Asuna to flick to the next picture, which was very old, and rather frayed at the corners. It pictured Nodoka, at about 25 years of age, standing with a vaguely younger looking Negi with another girl she recognised as Haruna on the porch of a cute house. "But... erm, about six months after that picture was taken, we agreed that it wouldn't work out, and she went to go and live with Haruna in Tokyo. Haruna wrote famous manga, by the way," he chuckled, and Asuna smiled at him. It was almost sad, watching him in such a way, because he looked so happy at those memories, but so lost, forgotten, left behind. Her heart melted in the sun, and she tried hard to srop the coeners of her mouth from quivering, as Negi's eternally cute features gazing curiously at her threatened to make her cry.

"Asuna-san, are you-"

"No, please, go on, I want to hear more."

"Are you s-?"

"Yes!"

"OK," he said, not convinced, taking a second to gaze at her, heart thumping inside his ribcage. Then, he indicated to the next picture. "Before I finished the project with Fate, I decided to go back to Earth and teach again- and Chachamaru came with me. We visited Mahora- Hakase-san taught me to programme and things over six months, then we moved to London." Asuna couldn't help but notice the lack of honorific on Chachamaru's name.

_**Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.**_

He paused, as if not willing to go on.

"What did you teach?" Asuna whispered as the words got caught in her throat, and he blinked at her as she gently ran her fingers through his hair.

"Languages..."

"Plural?"

"Every language taught at university level in the UK," he blushed, and Asuna's jaw dropped.

"How many's that?"

"Dunno. There was like... Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, French, Russian and... um... Czech."

"Wait... And you were a teacher of all of those?"

Asuna forgot about everything else. She'd never really noticed Negi's love for foreign languages, but he must've had one, because he passed a degree in Japanese before coming to Mahora.

"Fluently?" she added.

He nodded, looking embarrassed as Asuna marvelled at his achievement. She felt stupid against him now... Why did he even waste his time with her?

"I think, then," he said quietly, "Was around when we finished the project with Fate, and the Megalo-Mesembrian Senate offered me into a seat on the English Parliament, to improve relations between the two worlds."

Asuna wondered if she was hearing right.

"Parliament? As in... Government?"

"Not for long."

"Why not?"

He averted his gaze as she asked this, and again, she cursed herself for being so insensitive. Of course his life hadn't been perfect! Even Negi had bad luck sometimes.

It took him thirty seconds or so to bring himself to look back at the ginger haired girl. It made Asuna feel heavy inside, everytime she thought about how much time she'd missed with him... Was it possible, even now they had all the time in the world, to get back the relationship they had had before?

_**Old friend, why are you so shy?**_

She didn't even know why they were sat there. Asuna had literally only woken that morning, and yet here she was, wishing for Negi's life story. Did she have the right? He already had the guilt that he felt for putting her through such a major time lapse, but she really didn't blame him. She didn't want him to be distant. She didn't want him to be someone different.

_**Ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light**_.

She wanted to hold him, to share her thoughts with him, and laugh with him, just like they'd used to.

"Evangeline-sama killed herself, and when she did, so did Alberio-san and Chachamaru," he whispered, and she could see the pain he'd felt all those years ago- the years Asuna had missed- return to his eyes, and he tried to hide the fact he was crying again.

Eva?

Alberio?

Chachamaru?

It broke her heart.

"Shh," she soothed, as he began sobbing again. It was hard enough restaining herself from crying, because it would do him not good, but she managed to manouver him so that he couldn't see her face, just hide his own, whilst listening to the soft thudding of her heartbeat.

"I don't normally cry like this," he insisted, and Asuna saw a flicker of the stubbourn ten-year-old she once knew. Now, she felt a new kind of feeling emerging inside her- one she couldn't name; a ball of blue light floating through her dreams and innerspace.

She didn't want to speak, so for a while, she just enjoyed holding him, thinking about all the things he'd done in his life, and listening intently to the far of sound of a brook or stream, possibly a running tap. Negi was immortal, just like Evangeline. And yet, Eva had been the one to end her own life, after nearly 200 years of being an audacious and eccentric Japanese vampire girl. Did Negi think the same as that?

Waiting for her to arrive for a 100 years must have been hell for him. She'd got the lucky way out. She didn't have to watch helplessly as everyone died around her. She could now grow older, start her own family. Negi never had a normal life. She wasn't cursed being a child forever, or bound to a 25 year project with a guy she'd been stabbed by. She didn't have a legacy to live up to.

"I wish," she mumbled, "That I could've been there all those times like this, Negi, so that I could've made you feel better."

"Mm."

He'd cried on his own for weeks on end sometimes, as life became lonlier and lonlier.

Until Asuna came along.

"I'm doing it now, I know... But..."

_**I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited**_,

"I feels so surreal being here with you, Negi. I mean... I can't put my finger on it." There was a short silence. "You're so different."

"It's been a while," he whispered honestly, and her heart skipped a beat.

"Why did you come? It hurts you, being here, and telling me about your past just now." Asuna began to sound accusatory, but really, she was just making it sound less rhetorical. She wanted an answer from him.

_**But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.**_

Negi'd left things unsaid. He knew it, and, if life were just the way he planned it, that would have been the moment in which he said exactly what he meant in the pit of his thoughts. However, Asuna was right. He no longer felt the spark between them- it was a crumbling relationship based on mere memoires; memories that were fading quicker than the marks on Asuna's skin when he lifted his fingers off it.

Surely, Asuna's new life deserved better. Someone that hadn't forced her into the postion she was in, like he had.

_**I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded**_

"I want it to be just like it was, just like you do," Asuna mumbled into his ear, "But what is just a hazy memory for you is yesterday for me."

_**That for me, it isn't over.**_

"I remember!" he protested, and began crying again.

"Hey, Negi!" she said, gently trying her best to lift his head from her shoulder, but to little avail. "That's not..."

"I..." He struggled to finish his sentence.

Asuna didn't understand. He wouldn't let her see his face: like he was afraid of her, like a homeless kitten was of a kindly stranger.

She wondered if it was about what she thought he was going to say to her, all that time ago.

"I've got the time, now," she said, and he went still. "Tell me what's on you mind, baka, and we can sort it out together."

"No... Asuna... I..." Negi continued to struggle with what be wanted to say: and he knew what he wanted to say, but Asuna had that effect on him that he couldn't find the courage to put it into words.

Frustrated, he tilled this idea over in his mind, desperatly trying to gather himself. He knew, as much as Asuna assumed, that back in his time, life had been great- he'd had all the courage in the world. People he knew surrounded him: there to laugh wih him when life was good, there to hold him when it fell flat sometimes, to offer him kind words and undying support when it came to his thoughts. But, once those times started to whittle away, it became a vicious circle, as he tried his best to stay back from the ones he loved, they too drifted from within his reach, until, there he was, completely alone, with no one there to tell him it was going to work out- nothing to hold on to but a promise made decades before. It rested on that moment, with Asuna. He had to step back into life, stop regretting the past; of ever letting Asuna go.

Let himself love again.

He had no idea what Asuna thought of him. He thought back to his times as a middle-school English teacher- and, hurt, he dared admit to himself that Asuna was right. He could barely remember his first day, let alone some of the conversations they had had together. Conversations that Asuna could remember as clear as day.

"I miss it," he whispered, thinking aloud, and Asuna understood instantly what he meant. It had been hard on him, all this time: she'd expected him to have a family, maybe a wife still alive, but instead, he had nothing.

As she'd been waiting, she had thought about what kind of life Negi might've had. She felt jealous as she imagined him, grown-up, and intimate with a strange woman she'd never met before. It had come as a surprise to learn that there was no one of this nature, to feel isolated and pushed out of, but, as she observed the reserved boy he'd become, she found herself wishing that it had been like that. She could have managed by herself. There was someone ready to care for her out there, and be watchful until she was ready to face the world.

_**Never mind, I'll find someone like you**_,

But when Negi had come on as so diffident, and in some aspect, cold, while being secretly very dependent, she had to consider if there was more to this meeting than she'd thought.

It can't be like that, Negi, she thought.

She wasn't good for him. She'd just hold him in the past, when they both knew full well that this should be the start of them both moving forward in seperate directions.

_**I wish nothing but the best for you too.**_

Evidently, this would be hard. Whatever Negi wanted to say, he had yet to spit it out, so she stayed still for a while, letting him position himself demurely, leant delicately against her arm, and closing his eyes, filling his lungs with the fresh and sweet late summer air.

She didn't want to move on, not really. They'd shared so, so much together- or so she thought, until she remembered how insignificant that part of his life had become. There was no room for her. She was nothing more than a student, once taught by him...and even then, not for as long as the others.

_**Don't forget me, I begged,**_

The dust from the rock was settling around them, and the air became crystal clear, and her vision as sharp as she remembered in. There were so many colours surrounding her. It reminded her of her first visit to the mangic world, and how she, at the time, didn't consider it as a significant event- after all, whether Negi thought of it like she did or not, it had, at one point, been nothing less than a little trip to seek out Negi's father. The turning point for her, was losing him.

It felt good to think that all those colours had been preserved for all that time.

_**I remember you said,**_

"Courage is the greatest magic," she quoted quietly, and felt him shuffle.

_**Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,**_

"That's a good way of putting it," he complimented naively, and Asuna felt sad that he didn't get something like that, though it shouldn't have come as a shock.

She couldn't help but feel lost.

**_Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead_**.

"You said that to me," she confessed, and he picked himself of her arm to blink blankly at her, which just made it hurt a little bit more.

"I did?"

"Yeah."

Then he grinned knowingly.

"You never confessed to Takahata."

"Eh!" Asuna blushed, taken off guard by his sudden comment on something she'd thought he'd forgotten.

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

That comment made her reconsider her position here. Seeing Negi as the same person he'd always been to her just wasn't feasible anymore, just as, as much as they both wished for it, they couldn't carry on from what had occurred in the past. It was time; she knew, to turn over a new leaf, and begin themselves a new life, building a new relationship without standing back in time.

It would be a challenge alright.

"No... I didn't," she said honestly, "But there's nothing I can do about it now." Negi gave her a puzzled look- not his normal one, though- or what was "normal" for her, anyway, because, rather than coming across as cute and, for a male of his age, rather moe; it looked wise and calculated. Unabashed, she moved forward, almost lunging her entire upper body at him, and their faces became close together. She blushed slightly, as she realised that, even after all this time, he was still instinctively awkward with girls, and no matter how hard he tried to hide it... she could see it affecting him, as his soft breaths quickened discreetly and graced her cheeks with a sweet aroma that she couldn't name. "Let's face it," she grinned cockily, defending her sadnesses, "There's no point in dwelling on anything. I mean, as much as Mahora was great..."

She failed to finish that sentence.

"But that's all you've got," he whispered, hitting the nail on the head.

Again, Asuna found herself listening to the trickling of the water, before finally replying.

"I should start over."

"Why?"

"The past is the past."

"I've been..."

"What?" she asked curiously, as he trailed off, gazing absentmindedly out at the sky. Probably avoiding that exact question.

She poked him.

"What was your favourite memory, then, Asuna-san?" he asked randomly, evidently trying to change to topic. Or maybe trying to explain what he was thinking, in theoretical concepts. However, pushing all these thoughts to the back of her mind, she sighed, taking her turn resting her head on his chest, thinking through her answer as she listened to his heartbeat.

_**You'd know how the time flies,**_

"Maybe it does feel like a while ago..." she muttered, "Um, that's kind of a hard question. The whole school festival was fun, I guess- even the part about nearly getting trapped in an alternate universe!" she giggled.

"Yeah... Thanks for saving me from the Magic Council."

"It wasn't just me... Anyway, you would have made a depressing ermine."

"Thanks."

"Well?" she asked quietly, "What about you?"

"My favourite part?"

She nodded.

"Ermm..." he paused, which was expected, but not as long as Asuna thought he would.

_**Only yesterday was the time of our lives,**_

"The festival, too, because it taught me alot about the people I thought I knew... But I also liked our trip to Ayaka's resort in the South Pacific."

"What, the one just after the Kyoto trip?"

He laughed.

"Yes, Asuna-san, and I know we had an argument and that's not why I liked it."

"You said I had a paipan," she grumbled, poking her tongue out at him playfully.

"Sorry."

She snorted happily- not in a rude or throaty way, just a little and sharp exhalation, showing him that something like that had been the least of her worries.

"Why did you like it, then?"

_**We were born and raised,**_

"Because, when you left my glasses on the deck, and I followed you out into the sea, I saw things I never expected to see in you, Asuna-san."

Her heart skipped a beat. Again, she felt her face heat up, as another familiar feeling ran down her spine. Was it the same feeling as before?

"Y-You sound so soppy, baka," she said, trying to hide her embarrassment, but actually emphasising it by stuttering at him. She also lacked the usual annoyance in her tone, and, overall, her insult sounded bland.

"There was that great sunrise, too," he grinned, and Asuna relaxed a bit, rolling her shoulders to ease the tension.

"You remember that?"

He nodded, deciding not to mention the countless flashbacks and dreams of his time at Mahora- and another fact leading on from that which he also left mentioning, was that, despite all the great things that had happened in his life, spending his time as a simple middle-school teacher had been the most fulfilled days of his life.

"Well, I guess you're right about the sunset... Summer was a long one, that year..."

"I think so."

"I mean, it was still warm in the fall, when we had Fate as our teacher..."

"I only taught you for a summer?"

Asuna thought about that momentarily.

"A very long summer," she blushed, "The best in my life," she added from behind her mouth.

**_In a summer haze,_**

"We did alot!"

She giggled at this comment, because, no matter how she looked at it, it was ridiculously true; though, deep down, she couldn't shake the fact that all this reminiscing was getting to Negi.

Though at least he looked relaxed enough now.

"Never a quiet moment with you around."

"Is it not quiet now?" he tested, again reminding Asuna how much older than her he was, technically.

Admittedly, she did notice this, as she stopped and thought for a moment. There was no sound, except the trickling of the river over the rocks- something she, strangely, had yet to notice. Negi gave her another of those knowing smiles, and she raised her eyebrows, mouth curving downwards and she struggled to hear more than was there.

For her, it was still rare to have times like this. Her last days had been filled with well-wishers, parties, conferences, meetings and a bit of begging, majorly on Setsuna's part (she took a while to ever forgive Negi for this- Konoka had to make her understand that he was never to blame, and that his relationship with Asuna and the fact she was a long-lost princess was purely coincidental). The silence was almost prized, though she knew that wasn't the way she would learn to see it- most days would be like this now. Negi was the only one left, and she no longer felt like she should burden him, though she was secretly shocked at how much he had appeared to recall, and how little he seemed to have changed. Still, the responsibility remained hers to see her own life forward...

"Yes," she replied simply.

**_Bound by the surprise of our glory days_**.

"We shouldn't really be talking about the past like this," she pointed out sadly, catching his eye as he raised his brow, which made his hair move in front of his eyes. She allowed herself to push it away, noting how it had seemed to have become less red over the years, and was now nearly brown, with no more than a hint of it's original colour- almost a mahogany.

"Why not?" he asked. He sounded naive, but Asuna knew better than assuming what he meant. The question undoubtedly contained more depth.

"I... I feel guilty," she confessed.

_**I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited**_

"Don't." His tone was almost begging, and it startled her.

He had a strange look in his eye.

"Negi, you know as well as I that we can't go back. Everything that was back then no longer exists." Suddenly, she stood up in frustration. She felt adrenaline kicking in, as emotions began to power uncontrollably through her veins, raging and fiery. Now she's started, she couldn't stop, and she fought back tears as he exact thoughts came tumbling out in words. "Everyone we ever knew has gone, and I feel like I don't know you either, Negi! I'm alone now, somewhere I've never been before... I never knew what to expect- I'm surprised you even turned up here, I thought you would've forgotten about me." She sniffed, and, as he stood, she considered what she'd just said.

"I..."

"Negi," she started, "Why didn't you forget?"

"I wanted to see you again," he said simply. Such a selfish reason, but true.

_**But I couldn't stay away,**_

"Really?" Although she knew that comment hadn't been intended in that way, she felt flattered, before realising that Negi had managed to bring her right back down from her anger- and she felt peaceful again, as if nothing had happened. Except they were both still stood up- and Negi had dusty knees.

"Y-Yes," he stuttered, though Asuna's question was intended (mainly) as rhetorical.

"But it can't have been the only reason?" she blurted, before covering her mouth apologetically. What was she saying? It sounded as if she was trying to push for something else- though she had no idea what her subconscious thought it would be.

However, he gave a strange answer to this.

"Did you notice?"

"Huh?" She was really confused now- though she'd began to feel all jumpy and in anticipation. Her heart was racing, and she felt the need to run: not away from him, or to anywhere in particular, but to just run, run and never look back.

"Never mind..."

"Wait!" she interrupted, though perhaps a tad too loudly.

_**I couldn't fight it**._

She did notice- she remembered. And how couldn't she have? It came as a slap in the face when she recalled almost the last events of her time before, wondering how on earth she could have ever forgotten them. It should have been the freshest thoughts in her mind; instead, as they flashed through her mind, she felt numb.

She could see it. He'd been silent all the way there, making her feel more than awkward, as she tried to remain placated while he watched her, a strange faraway smile etched on his lips.

Yeah... And that smile was the same one he was wearing right in front of her now. Detached, secretive, raw.

_**I'd hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded**_

Until they had reached the place, where she would inevitably part from him. She wasn't sure what she expected, but it was awkward to start with. It was strange back then to think how they'd come to know each other so naturally, through the thicks and thins of, as Negi had said, a mere summer; but the idea of having it ended so abruptly in such a manner distressed them both to places where, in the run up to Asuna's departure, they'd barely stopped talking.

Until he took her hand.

He held it tight, close to his own chest, and she could feel the steady beating of his heart quicken. In all the time she'd known him, there had never been a doubt in her eye that he was sincere, nor did she think that, when the time came, he wouldn't cry before she left- and she wasn't wrong, either, but she never could have anticipated how deep it felt to watch him crying for her. Almost as if he knew what it'd be like when he saw her again.

Someone had been hassling her while this happened- she couldn't remember who, maybe one of Fate's cronies. And, of course, there were others- Setsuna, Konoka, Evangeline, and another group of officials, all who seemed humbled by seeing the great mage Negi Springfield crying like a ten-year-old.

They didn't know him the way she did.

There was a distinct hush as he opened his mouth to say something...

"I...I... Asu..." he struggled, and, eventually, settled with just giving her a hug, hiding whatever it was he'd been trying to say by whispering the details of where she should meet him when she woke up.

Asuna treasured these details, recalling with a sorry jerk, how he'd been to upset to move away, as a firm grip steered her away from him, barely allowing her to look back at his crouched outline as he shook with emotion. Why her eyes remained dry at that point, she didn't know. She didn't say anything, and neither did anyone else.

She knew, then, that everything was going to change.

_**That for me it isn't over.**_

"I do know what you're talking about now..."

He blinked.

"You do?"

"Yeah..." she trailed off, unable to say anything worthy of the height of the conversation. She had a little thought in her head, bit she daren't be so bold as to believe it, or even to question Negi about it. That would be his job.

Or it wouldn't. After all, memories like that should teach her how she hurts the ones close to her- and really, Negi had had enough hurt for his lifetime. The last thing they both needed was...each other.

_**Never mind, I'll find someone like you,**_

_**I wish nothing but the best for you, too.**_

_**Don't forget me, I begged!**_

_**I remember you said,**_

_**"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."**_

"I missed you, Asuna," he confessed suddenly. Asuna was taken aback, especially as such a polite boy had taken the honorific off her name without asking. Was intimacy even a part of it nowadays? She felt as though he was leading her somewhere.

Then again, why shouldn't he?

Negi meant alot to her.

_**Nothing compares**_

"I..."

"You have no idea how much I mean that," he said, interrupting her. He advanced toward her with a jolt, and, though their faces were very, very close, Asuna found herself gazing into his eyes- huge pools of pain, sparkling with a hundred years of isolation, regret and loneliness.

"It can't have been easy," she breathed. She was beginning to feel very lightheaded, and excited for something, even though this was a serious moment. Her stomach was full of butterflies.

For one split second, she found herself asking herself- Is this love?

_**No worries or cares,**_

"I don't know if I have the right to say this... You might hate me forever, and I'd probably deserve it, but I can't leave it again."

_**Regrets and mistakes**_

"What you were going to say when we were saying goodbye?"

_**They're memories made.**_

"I'm sorry, but..."

_**Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?**_

As she saw him lean gently in, it took her a few moments for her to register the beautiful sensation on her lips.

He was kissing her.

She closed her eyes, letting the pressure of his lips carry her away, to a place she'd never been allowed to go before.

This had to be right.

"...I love you," he whispered.

_**Never mind, I'll find someone like you**_

_**I wish nothing but the best for you**_

_**Don't forget me, I begged**_

_**I remember you said,**_

_**"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."**_

_**Never mind, I'll find someone like you**_

_**I wish nothing but the best for you too**_

_**Don't forget me, I begged**_

_**I remember you said,**_

_**"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead...**_

_**Sometimes...**_

_**It lasts in love,**_

_**But sometimes,**_

_**It hurts instead.  
><strong>_


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